Literacy mediated by Literatura de Cordel as a pedagogical artifact of Popular Education

Abstract

This study addresses the literacy education of young people, adults, and the elderly mediated by Literatura de Cordel (traditional Brazilian folk poetry), understood here as a pedagogical artifact of Popular Education grounded in the Freirean perspective (Freire, 2009; 1983). The general objective is to present cordel as a playful, interdisciplinary pedagogical tool capable of fostering literacy and letramento (social literacy practices) based on the learners' realities and life histories. The methodology consists of theoretical research combined with a proposed teaching sequence structured into five 50-minute lessons designed for Youth and Adult Education (EJA) programs. This pedagogical proposal encompasses welcoming activities, brainstorming, interactive lectures, the handling of cordel booklets, original poem creation, and the crafting of Styrofoam-based woodcut-style printing plates. The results and discussion indicate that the poetic structure of cordel, characterized by rhymes, meter, verses, stanzas, and sentences, serves as a powerful tool facilitating memorization, reading, and writing skills. Furthermore, cordel literature fosters oral communication skills through the reader/listener dynamic (Neves, 2024) and promotes interdisciplinarity by connecting knowledge from subjects such as Mathematics, Geography, History, and Portuguese Language. The study also highlights how these narratives aid in developing critical literacy and social awareness among students regarding their own realities. It concludes that using cordel in the classroom is both highly feasible and effective, as it humanizes the teaching-learning process by transforming the learner into the author and witness of their own story.